


Made of Lace and Steel

by kristanyasfandom1824



Category: Man of Steel (2013), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-05 13:50:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6706810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kristanyasfandom1824/pseuds/kristanyasfandom1824
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lois Lane has been aching for a new fascinating story, something that would just jump off the page. An exciting new revelation. When she's sent to Canada to cover a frozen anomaly she might have found  just the thing, as well as quite a bit more. </p>
<p>(Entirety of Man of Steel's timeline from Lois's perspective. )</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> After watching the new batman vs Superman movie my love for man of steel was found again! So I gathered up all my courage and decided to finally post something. Hope you enjoy!

Lois Lane groaned as her alarm blared from her bedside table. She shifted enough to slam her hand onto the off button and then glowered angrily at it. Her sleep had been shifty at best and basically nonexistent at worst due to staying up the whole evening finishing up yet another political scandal story. 

With a long suffering sigh she hauled herself out of bed and ambled toward the shower, desperately hoping that Perry would have something better for her today. Something of real substance. She scoffed at the likely hood of that as she climbed under the warm water. Nothing state side would compare to her time with the first division. 

Despite her skepticism of a Lane worthy story, Lois was excited to start on something new and hurried through her morning routine. Grabbing a handful of granola bars for breakfast she flew out the door and made her way to the subway that would take her to the Planet. 

She had only barely made it into the office when Perry was loudly calling her name, a hint of urgency to his voice. She had to suppress the excited grin that threatened to spread across her face as she veered away from her desk and into his office. 

"Morning Lane." he greeted as she walked in. "Good job on the Senator story."

"Thanks Perry." She sat in front of his desk, her eyes zeroing on the files before him. "What do you have for me now?"

"No need to sound so petulant." He pushed the papers closer to her. "I think you'll enjoy this one."

She eagerly lifted the information and began to read, the eager smile taking over her features. "They really repealed the injunction!" 

He nodded. "The Appella court decided that since it’s on Canadian soil they have the right to decide if people are entitled to know what that anomaly truly is."

She nodded excitedly and shoved the files into her bag. "When do I get to leave?"

"I told them you would be leaving tomorrow and arriving early the next morning."

"So naturally I will leave tonight and get there tomorrow." she stated already eager to get a start on the new mystery. 

"So I assumed." He gave her an exasperatedly fond look. "Do you have winter gear? Even in the beginnings of summer it’s beyond freezing up there."

She nodded distractedly, her mind already on all the things she needed to do so she was prepared by that evening. "I'll dig it out of the closet." she stood then and glanced towards the door. "Can I get ready to go now?"

"By all means." he gestured to the exit and then called as she all but ran from the room. "Don’t get frostbite!"

She chuckled lowly at his parting message and briefly waved to her coworkers on her way out. This was the sort of excitement she had been hoping for that morning. An unknown object found frozen deep in a glacier. She had wanted to do a story on it from the moment she learned of its existence but the damn military had put an injunction up that kept reporters out almost instantly.

"Thank god for the Appella court." She stated to herself, earning a few curious looks from others in the elevator that she promptly ignored. She was too antsy and excited to pay attention to their judgments. 

Her excitement turned to annoyance as everything around her moved agonizingly slow. The crosswalk wouldn’t change, people crowded her way and when she finally did reach the subway she had to wait another twenty minutes before the train going to her station arrived. 

She sat down and moved to pull out the files on the anomaly when her cell began to ring shrilly. She stood slightly to pull it from her pocket and then frowned lightly  when she saw it was her sister.

"Hi Luce!" she answered, guilt already creeping up her at how she knew this conversation would go. 

"Lois! What time should I pick you up to go dress shopping tonight?"

She sighed and leaned back into the post behind her. “I’m sorry Luce, I won’t be able to go tonight. I got an assignment out of town." 

"You're kidding right? I asked you two days ago if you'd come with me tonight!" Her tone was beyond agitated and Lois had to resist sighing again.

"I know, and I'm sorry. I just got the assignment today and it’s an important one."

"Everything about your job is important, but only your job! I'm engaged Lois and this is wedding dress shopping! Not some nonsense fun trip!"

"You got engaged a week ago! You have more than a year until your wedding! Cant it wait just a couple days?"

Her sister scoffed. "A couple days! It's never just a couple days with you! How long were you in Afghanistan? Months!"

"And I won a Pulitzer for that!"

"And of course that’s more important than your little sister getting married. I'd say wait until it’s you and I back out on our plans, but I can’t because being a reporter is all you care about. You'll never get married, or have anyone in your life at all!"

The dial tone rang loudly in her ear. She pulled the offending electronic away from her face and glowered angrily at the display of her sister. "Damn it."

She shoved the phone back into her pocket and crossed her arms; equal parts anger and guilt storming through her. "Not like I won’t make it up to her." she grumbled. 

The rest of her tense trip home was spent with the same internal turmoil as she debated whether or not to call the younger girl back, but ultimately decided not to. Her sister would get over it in time but right now she was still angry, and Lane women did not listen while they were angry. 

Thoughts of Lucy evaporated the moment she got home though. Despite what she had told Perry she was decidedly unprepared for an arctic vacation. It took her a couple hours to gather all the necessary winter articles as well as her entire photography arsenal and everything she would need for writing. She ended up with three large heavy bags, one of her clothes, one her camera and the final of her computer and papers; all of which she had to lug down to the cab waiting to take her to the airfield.

She collapsed into the back seat, tossing her clothes carelessly while gently placing her precious equipment beside her. She shot the unhelpful cabby a rueful glare as he sighed impatiently and then gave him another as he jerked the car into traffic.

The drive was unpleasant and she had never been gladder to see a military chopper than she was when they arrived. She gathered her bags and left the taxi quickly, hurrying her way over to the waiting pilot. 

"Ms. Lane!" he called when she got closer. "Glad you could make it. You're ready to get going right?"

She nodded and hoisted her possessions onto the chopper before pulling herself in as well. "Ready! This isn’t my first rodeo."

He grinned and moved away to board himself, leaving her beside two military passengers who both gave her a look she could only describe as a stink eye. She smiled cheerfully at the two men and situated herself as comfortably as she could. 

"First flight?" One of the soldiers asked with an amused smirk.

"Not sure exactly." She replied. "I stopped counting after a while."

The man's smirk disappeared and she had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. She wasn't sure if it was the female or the reporter that did it, but she always seemed to receive varying degrees of hostility when entering a military atmosphere, at least at first. 

Content to ignore the hostility coming off of her fellow passengers, she pulled out her files a notebook and light that she attached to her headset so she could begin to take notes and set up a preliminary outline for her story. She got lost in theories and speculations, her blue eyes flickering from paper to paper. She became so distracted that she didn’t even notice the large majority of the flight. 

Half way through she fell asleep, waking up to the early morning light as they began to approach the military camp. She groaned and stretched as much as she could in the tight space, very happy at the prospect of getting out.

When they landed the two soldiers motioned her out first and she gave them a thankful nod, standing and using the wall as a support to exit the chopper. She surveyed the surrounding area before catching sight of a man standing right beside the doors. He lifted his arms in offer to help her down, and for some unknown reason she took the offered lift.

His strong hands gently gripped her waist and lifted her off her feet before lightly setting her down onto the snow. “Thanks!" She called to him over the chopper blades before turning to the other man walking toward her. 

"Hi!"

"Miss Lane! How're you doing?"

"Good!" She called back with a tiny smile. 

"Jake Ubanks, Arctic Cargo." He introduced himself with a smile in return.

"How far to the station?" She asked as he began to lead her forward.

"Camps just over that rise." He replied pointing ahead of them. "I'll walk you over."

"Great!" 

"Joe can take your bags." He assured her before turning his head to the man that helped her out of the chopper. "Joe! Help her out!"

She turned her head to see him effortlessly lifting her bags. She raised a surprised eyebrow but called out just in case, "Be careful with those! They're heavy!"

She saw him nod once before turning back to Ubanks. 

"I gotta confess Miss Lane; I'm not a fan of the Daily Planet.” he told her as they continued walking. She let out a small laugh before he kept talking. "But those pieces you wrote when you were embedded with the First Division were, well they were pretty impressive."

She gave a real laugh then and grinned at him. "Well what can I say, I get writers block if I'm not wearing a flak jacket!"

He laughed as well as they came up to the ridge. She stopped momentarily to observe the camp at the base of a huge glacier, a smile gracing her lips. 

"Come on I'll lead you inside so you can get a little warmer and meet the guys in charge."

"Sounds good. What about my stuff?" 

"Joe can wait outside for you." He replied nodding towards the man following behind them. She glanced at him and he gave a small nod of agreement. The two cargo workers then lead her to a central tent and motioned for her to enter. 

"Thank you Mr. Ubanks." 

"No problem Miss Lane." He waved before walking off to somewhere else in the station. 

She gave Joe one last little smile before entering the enclosure. Once inside she shed her outer coat almost instantly, the portable heaters making the huge amount of layers unnecessary. She nodded to the couple soldiers right inside before making her way to the two men heading her direction.

"Miss Lane. Col. Hardy US Northcon, Dr. Hamilton from Norfolk."

She reached her hand out to shake the Col's and frowned when he ignored her, before moving on to shake the doctor's. Her frown deepened at the first man's next words. 

"You're early. We were expecting you tomorrow."

She allowed the frown to morph into a small smirk. "Which is why I showed up today." She glanced between the two men before continuing. "Look, let’s get one thing straight guys okay? The only reason I'm here is because we're on Canadian soil and the Appella court over ruled your injunction to keep me away. So if we're done measuring dicks, can your people show me what you found?"

She almost couldn’t hold back the self-satisfied smirk as the two men shared shocked, barely amused looks before ushering her to follow them. 

They led her through the main tent to a room with a lone man and many screens. The soldier swiveled his chair at their entrance and nodded to the col. before shooting Lois a surprised look. 

"This is Lois Lane, a reporter with the Daily Planet. Show her what we have so far."

The man nodded and turned back to the screens, enlarging one area. "NASA's EOS satellite pinged the anomaly first. The ice shelf plays hell on the echo soundings but there is definitely something down there."

"A submarine? Maybe soviet era?" She asked with a questioning look shot to the Col. 

"Doubtful. That’s three hundred meters. Considerably larger than anything we know they built back then."

"But here's the spooky part. The ice surrounding the object is nearly twenty thousand years old."

Lois's eyes widened and she glanced between them in disbelief. The Col had a deep frown on his face and Doctor Hamilton looked perturbed. She was almost certain they hadn’t wanted the young man to reveal that tidbit to her.

"Come on, I'll show you to where you'll stay." Hardy instructed her, stiffly motioning her to follow him. 

They left the command area and went back out into the cold. Joe was still standing by the entrance and she shot him a mildly surprised look. He gave her a tiny nod and began to walk with them. After a few feet she fell behind the two men and began to observe the surroundings. 

They had come up to a small shed when she heard her name called out. 

"Miss Lane! Try not to wander. Temperatures get to minus forty at night here. We wouldn’t find your body till after spring."

She gave a little frown and glanced over her shoulder before she walked up to the Colonel. Joe was just leaving the shed as she reached it and he gave her a minute nod as he passed.

"Here you go." Hardy said gesturing to the inside of the tiny shed where her bags rested beside a pile of blankets on a thin army cot. The rest of the space was full of stacks upon stacks of containers. 

"What if I need to tinkle?" she asked her voice holding only a tiny bit of shock. 

"There's a bucket in the corner." He replied in an amused tone before leaving, shutting the door solidly. 

She stood still for a moment, surveying the tiny area before squaring her shoulders and turning right back out the door, a note book and pen in hand. 

She spent the last few hours before dark maneuvering through the camp and interviewing the Arctic Cargo workers. They all had their own ideas of what could be under the ice. Some thought that it was a super-secret Soviet sub that held nuclear missiles they had intended to bomb the states with. Some thought it was just a huge amount of even more dense ice trapped inside and that the government was wasting their energy and resources. 

On the other side of the spectrum were a couple men who were certain it was an ancient UFO and that’s why the government had put so much effort into keeping her out. While she was talking to those couple individuals she noticed Joe out of the corner of her eye, his head tilted toward them in a subtle display of eavesdropping. 

She thanked the two men before making her way to the tall dark haired man. "Hi, Joe right?" 

He turned to her and gave her a small smile and said in a gentle deep voice. "Hi Miss Lane. What can I do for you?"

She smiled back. "I was just wondering what your opinion on what the anomaly could possibly be is?"

He gave an almost nervous shrug. "Could be anything couldn’t it? I really have no idea."

She surveyed him a moment before nodding to the other two men. "Some of your coworkers think it could possibly be a trapped UFO. What’s your opinion on that?"

This time his shrug was definitely nervous. "That’s highly unlikely isn’t it? I mean it could be, but something more mundane seems more likely right?" he gave her another minute smile before nodding towards the setting sun. "I'm really sorry Miss Lane, but it will be dark soon. We should probably get indoors." He gave her a respectful nod before walking away.

She watched him for a moment with a contemplative look and then walked back to her little shed. Once inside she stood by the door and surveyed her bags before making a snap decision. 

She sat on the cot and pulled out her camera, setting the pieces on her makeshift desk. Once it was all put together she quietly made her way outside. 

She looked up at the lit drill over the glacier and lifted the camera to her face, snapping a quick picture. Fast movement caught her eye as she moved the camera back down and she opened the image she just took. She zoomed into the area she thought she saw the movement and her eyes widened. 

An unmistakable dot of a person was walking on the glaciers edge. The height and broad shoulders gave him away. There was no doubt in her mind it was Joe.

"Where the hell are you going?" She questioned the air with a tiny smile


	2. Chapter 2

The journalist in her urged her to find out, so without a moment of thought she took off after him. The path he took began to get narrower and narrower as she ventured forward until she was basically hugging the cliff's edge.

"Really, what in the hell is up here." she muttered to herself as she pushed onwards, her back flat against the ice until she came to an abrupt curve. She tilted her head around the corner and her eyes widened when she saw a huge tunnel cut into the ice.

She lifted her flashlight and aimed it down the huge expanse of rounded ice, her incredulous look deepening when she couldn’t see the end of it. 

Carefully she maneuvered herself around the ice ledge until she was at the mouth of the tunnel. Once there she shot a look over her shoulder, Col. Hardy's ominous warning flashing into her mind. It caused her to hesitate for a moment, but she shook it off and continued forward. 

The tunnel was huge. Lois's head came nowhere close to the top and as far as she could tell it didn’t seem to have an end to it. It was so dense there was a complete lack of sound, which was incredibly eerie. It was almost a thick palpable coat of silence, so strong in fact that water droplets falling from the ceiling sounded like huge bangs. 

The first time it happened she jumped and spun around, her blue eyes frantically looking for whatever had produced the sound. She saw nothing, but moments later felt a drop of water fall onto her shoulder and she rolled her eyes at herself. 

"It’s just water Lane. Nothing extraordinary."

She continued onward to the end of the tunnel, and as soon as she stepped into the opening her eyes widened again and her mouth fell open. Now that was extraordinary. Sitting before her was the frozen anomaly and it absolutely was not more ice. 

It was massive. A huge hulking form of metal that was undeniably some form of craft. It was all she could do not to run to it. She was cautious though, and carefully walked across the ice her eyes frozen on the giant form in awe.

She found what looked like an entrance, but frowned in annoyance that it was over her head. She removed her camera from around her neck and reached her hand up to gently set the expensive equipment on the cold metal ledge. With a firm grip she then hauled her own weight up.

The interior was breathtaking. Elegantly arched and surprisingly lit up. She had never seen anything so different or amazing before and stood still as she studied her surroundings. 

Movement caught her eye and she turned to see an odd floating device that was slowly ambling its way over to her. She grinned. It was utterly fantastic and no one would ever believe her without proof. 

With that thought she lifted her camera and aimed it towards the thing. It made a whirring noise and suddenly opened. She happily snapped a photo right at that moment, knowing it was going to make an amazing picture. 

Sudden pain erupted from her abdomen and then she was flying across the room and slamming hard into the ground. She cried out and grasped her stomach before she looked up to see what had attacked her. 

Her expression turned terrified when she saw the floating thing with what looked like a giant metal tentacle approaching her. She panicked and scooted back as far as the floor and the pain in her body would let her. Her eyes were stuck on the object in terror, and no matter how much she wanted to she couldn’t bring herself to look away from the thing that was most likely about to end her life.

Inappropriately she thought angrily that Hardy was right about finding her body in spring. She cringed away from the machine with one last terrified look when suddenly two pale arms were wrapping around the metal and crushing it into a small deformed shape.

The owner of the arms, who she could briefly make out as Joe, moved towards her and Lois began to panic again. She lifted herself up and tried to move away. Faintly she could hear his repeated mantra that it was alright but she was too terrified to listen. 

Suddenly he was above her and gently placing his hands lightly on her arms. "It's alright." He said gently again, a soft look on his face. His deep blue eyes bore into hers as he continued to look at her imploringly. She stared back for a moment as her heart rate calmed down before nodding. Somehow she knew she could trust him. 

His hands moved from her arms and one of them carefully unbuttoned her coat and then moved the shirt and sweater up a fraction. 

"You're hemorrhaging internally." He told her looking up into her face. "And if I don’t cauterize this bleed..."He bit his lip and his reassuring look turned into a grim one as he left the sentence hanging.

She took a few gasping deep breaths and managed to weakly ask, "How can?"

"I can do things other people cant." He told her simply and then reached out with one of his hands, offering it to her. "Hold my hand. This is going to hurt."

She clasped his hand tightly; unsure how anything could hurt more than the pain she was currently feeling. Moments later though his eyes began to light up a bright red and two thin lasers were burning into her body.

She screamed louder than she ever had before, her hand squeezing his in a death grip. Her body arched off the ground as her throat was ripped raw. Fortunately the pain was too much for her body and she blissfully passed out. 

She slowly woke what felt like moments later, the first thing she noticed was the throbbing ache in her side, and then she began to comprehend the flat strangely soft surface she was lying on and the even breathing of someone beside her.

Her eyes flickered open and she attempted to move but steady gentle hands kept her lying flat. 

"Glad to see you're awake." His calming voice said quietly. "I was worried when you passed out."

She tilted her head to look up at him, her expression an even mix of pain and awe. "You saved my life."

He nodded and gave a humble shrug. "I couldn’t just leave you here to freeze or bleed to death." His eyes moved to her stomach and he frowned faintly. "It will scar, there’s nothing I could do about that."

"I don’t care." She replied attempting to sit up again but stopped when he shook his head.

"Rest. You should agitate it as little as possible."

"I need to get back to the camp, all my stuff is there." Her eyes widened, "My camera!" She moved abruptly and then hissed loudly in pain and fell back onto the strange bed like surface.

"Your camera was totally destroyed. I'm sorry." He said with a truly apologetic look on his face. "I'll be able to drop you off a little ways from the station and then send them your coordinates." His expression turned even more regretful. "I'm sorry Miss Lane. I would take you straight there but I can’t go back."

She looked between him, a man who could in the very least crush metal like it was nothing and shoot lasers out of his eyes, and the beyond otherworldly room they were currently in and nodded. "There's no need to apologize. You've done more than most would in your situation."

He gave her a relieved smile and very lightly squeezed her shoulder. "Thank you." He began to leave the room and she quickly called after him.

"Your name isn’t really Joe is it?"

He stopped walking and tilted his head towards her just in time for her to see a small amused smile disappear from his lips. "Rest Miss Lane. Your body needs it."

He was gone in the next second and Lois blinked, unsure whether or not what she was experiencing was real. She agreed with him though, her body was begging her to go to sleep. She didn’t have the energy to argue with it and so let her eyelids fall shut. 

The next time she woke it was to the loud beat of a chopper. She opened her eyes to bright sun and the sight of a helicopter landing close by. Faces appeared in her line of sight, worry in their eyes.

 "Miss Lane!" One man yelled over the noise. "Are you okay?" 

She nodded and slowly sat up, delight flowing through her at her ability to move. "I need to go back to camp!" She called back.

"You need a doctor!" the other soldier rebutted. 

"But!"

"Don’t argue Miss Lane."

She had no way to resist as the two men lifted her onto the helicopter or as she was flown to the closest military hospital. 

The doctors were baffled by how very little frost bite she had for how long she was supposedly out in the freezing temperatures and were in even more shock from the cauterized healing puncture on her stomach.

"How did this happen?" One asked incredulously. 

"One of the Arctic Cargo men."

"He shot you!" 

She glowered at the nurse who interrupted her and said, "No. No Joe saved me. I would have died if he hadn’t been there."

She could tell they thought she was delirious. She wasn’t. She was frustrated. She wanted to yell at them all that an amazing man with amazing talents from another world saved her. No one would listen though. 

Finally after hours of agonizingly long waiting Colonel Hardy and Doctor Hamilton came into the hospital room. The Colonel stared at her for a moment before speaking. 

"What happened Miss Lane."

She didn’t hesitate to launch into her story, from leaving the camp to waking up beside the helicopter. They both sat staring at her as she talked, and try as she might she couldn’t tell from their expressions if they believed her or not. When she finished speaking she leveled them with a serious look. 

"I didn’t make it up. I'm not hallucinating or delirious. That thing was some sort of alien spacecraft."

The men shared a look and then Hardy sighed and nodded. "We know. We saw it take off."

"Could barely believe my eyes." Hamilton agreed. 

"And Joe?" She asked eagerly. "Do the Arctic Cargo workers know anything?"

"We told Ubanks what the doctors told us you said." Hardy answered. "He ran a full background check, turns out everything about him was falsified."

"So theoretically he could be from somewhere, well, not here." Hamilton concluded.

She nodded, knowing for sure that he was. No human could do what he had done. "I feel fine. Can I please get out of here? I want to get my stuff from the base and go home."

"Yes Miss Lane. We can go."

The first thing she did when they returned to Ellesmere was track down each member of the Arctic Cargo and asked them their version of the previous night’s events. Some were terrified to talk to her about the ship and left with gruff excuses. While others, like the two original UFO believers, were more than happy to describe what they saw and heard. 

By the time she was ready to leave the island it was already nearing dark again. It was hard to believe that she had only left Metropolis a scant couple days ago. The events of the past few hours had been so incredibly unbelievable. 

She was helped into the chopper again and gingerly maneuvered herself so she could place her laptop on her legs without it touching the sore gouge in her side. She had the back of the helicopter to herself this time and planned on utilizing the solitude to write the story running through her mind. 

'One of the first things I did upon arriving at Ellesmere was to conduct interviews with the civilian workers in order to find out their opinions on the anomaly. Some were more outlandish than others, but in the following hours I would come to learn that a few of them were closer to the truth than I could have ever thought.'

The words just flowed from her. She had the entire article finished before they even reached Metropolis.

 


	3. Chapter 3

"'What Colonel Hardy and his team surmised was a soviet era submarine was actually something much more exotic. An isotope analysis of the surrounding ice spores suggests that an object had been trapped in the glacier for over eight teen thousand years. As for my rescuer, he disappeared during the objects departure. A background check revealed that his work history and identity had been falsified. The questions raised by my rescuers existence are frightening to contemplate and I also know what I saw. And I have arrived at the unescapable conclusion that the object, and its occupant, did not originate on Earth.'"

She looked up after reading the conclusion of her article to stare expectantly at Perry, waiting impatiently for his response. Finally he looked up from the paper with a sigh and turned to her. 

"I can’t print this Lois, you might have hallucinated half of it."

"What about the civilian contractors that corroborated my story?" She demanded taking a step forward and jabbing a pointed finger at the papers in her other hand.

"The pentagon is denying that there was a ship." He rebutted firmly. 

"Of course they are!" She exclaimed stepping closer to his desk. "That’s what they're supposed to do, it’s the Pentagon!" She gave a small sigh and continued. "Perry come on, it’s me were talking about. I'm a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter."

"Then act like it!" He almost snapped bending closer to his desk. 

"Print it or I walk.” She stated defiantly, crossing her arms and squaring her shoulders.

"You can’t, you're under contract."

She sighed and gave him an imploring look, second away from begging and Lois Lane did not beg.

"I'm not running a story about aliens walking among us." he said with finality as he sat. He gave a long suffering sigh and pushed her article towards her. "Never gunna happen."

She stared at him angrily for a moment before a tiny smile unwillingly crossed her lips. She pushed it down before he saw and nodded before practically stomping out of his office. 

Lois had gone almost straight to the Planet after arriving back in the city. She had only briefly stopped off at her apartment to change and deposit her clothing. She was so eager to show Perry her article, and the obstinate man was refusing to print it! 

It absolutely infuriated her. This was the full honest truth. Some of the most honest she had ever written, and he refused to take it because a story about a real alien was, what, outlandish?

She practically growled under her breath causing a couple interns to skirt away from her wrath.  She didn’t care what Perry had to say. This story was getting out there at some point and she knew just the way, despicable though it was.

She went into one of the empty conference rooms and pulled out her phone, dialing a number she really wished she wasn’t. 

"Well Lois Lane, I never thought I would again have the pleasure."

She grit her teeth at the obnoxious sound of his voice before saying, "Woodburn, I have an article for you." 

"For little old me huh? What about your precious Daily Planet?"

She sighed and sat in one of the chairs. "Trust me if they would print it I wouldn’t be going to you. Just, please, can the snark. Do you want it or not?"

"Depends. Is it juicy?"

She smiled widely, knowing for a fact just how juicy the so called reporter would find her story. "Very." 

"Then I'm in. I know just the place we can meet."

A few hours later Lois eyed the dive bar with partial disdain before making her way inside. She sat at the bar and ordered a scotch while she was waiting for Woodburn to arrive.

She didn’t have to wait long. Only minutes later he came through the doors and made his way over to her. 

"So tell me, what’s so important that you came to me?"

Indicating for him to take the seat beside her, she pulled out the physical copy of her article and slid it across the bar to him. "Just read."

He took a surprisingly quick time to read through the papers and when he finished he looked up with a huge expectant grin on his face. "Lois you have to let me publish this."

"That’s why I called you." she reminded him, stealing the papers back and shoving them in her bag. "Except you can’t publish it for at least six weeks."

"Six weeks! Why the insane wait."

She sighed. "Perry is angry enough as it is, if I have this published now I could potentially be losing my job."

She saw his skepticism at that excuse and groaned. "Okay fine. If you wait and give me time I'll have a follow up on my rescuer. About the life he's lived and who he is. Okay?"

His cheesy grin widened. "Oh absolutely. As long as you promise the story goes to me."

She nodded her head in agreement. "It will."

"Excellent. Now for the article?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

She pulled out her phone, but before she could answer the bartender finally appeared with her drink. 

"That’s a scotch, straight up, for the lady."

She nodded her thanks and almost laughed at Woodburn’s surprised look. She didn’t, but only so she could continue to send the story over to him.

"I'm sending you the original article. My publisher wont print it, but if it happened to leak online." She left the sentence to hang with a pointed look, determined to be sure he knew to leave the article under anonymous.

"Got it." he replied with a understanding nod. He hesitated for a second before asking. "But didn’t you once describe my site as a creeping cancer of falsehoods?"

She smiled faintly. He had obviously been dying to point that out to her probably from the moment she called. It didn’t matter though. This story was too important, and so she shrugged. "I stand by my words Woodburn. But I want this story out there."

"Why?" he questioned with a perplexed look. 

Her smile turned a little sad as she replied. "Because I want my mystery man to know I know the truth."

She stared at the scotch for a moment before lifting it to her mouth and downing it in one go. She sat the glass back down and this time did laugh at Woodburn's shocked expression. 

Standing, she gave him a pointed look. "Six weeks at least."

"I'll call you before I post it to make sure it's a good time."

She nodded and tossed money on the bar for her drink before hastily exiting. She was glad to be done with that conversation and desperately hoped she was doing the right thing. What she had told Woodburn was the truth. She needed Joe to know what she did, but at the same time she had to learn more. She just had no idea where to start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first three chapters have a lot that is taken directly from the movie, and isn't mine. The next few will have a few lines from the movie, but most is original. Let me know how you're enjoying it! Thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning she sat at her desk at work, her mind on everything but the pollution investigation Perry had handed her when she arrived. She had had to fight the angry glare she wanted to give him and only succeeded because she needed to stay under his radar. 

She knew he would never go along with her investigating Joe. Whatever she did would have to be on her own time. She was still at a loss as to where to start. How do you find someone who makes it their mission to stay hidden?

It was after lunch when an idea finally hit her. She was painstakingly tracing back the origin of the bays pollution when she suddenly stopped. Of course it was that simple! To find him all she had to do was start with what she already knew!

She pulled out her phone and looked up where the Arctic Cargo headquarters were. It didn’t take her long to figure it out and even less time to book a flight to the closest airport.

Giddy delight filled her. Despite his information being falsified, maybe they'll know something about where he was before he worked for them. It was the best start she had. Friday couldn’t come soon enough. 

She almost put her phone away when her photos file caught her eye. Those first few hours at Ellesmere she had taken a few candids of the workers and surrounding land scape. Maybe she was lucky enough to have caught one of her mystery man?

Half way through she found one, it was blurry and you could only barely tell who it was, but it was most definitely Joe. 

She almost jumped for joy, but caught herself just in time. Instead she calmly sent it to the printer and went to retrieve it. 

She had just pulled the image from the machine when Perry's voice behind her made her jump.

"Lois? Is that for the pollution article?" she felt him lean around her to peer at the image and then heard his exasperated sigh. "I told you to stop with that!"

She turned around and gave him an imploring look. "Perry please. I just have to find him! I need to thank him." Her voice turned quiet and she added. "I never thanked him."

He stared at her before sighing in exasperation. "Really so it has nothing to do with writing a story on him?"

Lois shook her head adamantly; very relieved she had told Woodburn to wait. "No Perry. I just need to find him, make sure he's okay. Say thank you."

"Right and trying to prove he's an alien has nothing to do with it. As long as your real work doesn’t suffer I won’t stop you."

She crossed her arms and gave a small glare. "I'm using personal time. You couldn’t stop me anyway."

He rolled his eyes and started back toward his office. "Just remember Lane, it’s never going to happen!"

"Not that you know of." She grumbled to herself as she made her way back to her desk. Once there she carefully stored the picture of Joe in her bag. She would follow Perry's rules. Never would she let her work suffer. Despite that, her mystery man was truly her priority. At least until she found him. 

That night she sat on her couch an empty word document and Joe's picture staring at her from the coffee table. She wanted to get some sort of start to her story down. An introduction. Something eye-catching and deep. But every time she thought of something, Joe's honest kind face stopped her. How was she supposed to describe a man like him?

A loud knock on her door halted her next attempt. She frowned in confusion having no idea who could possibly be coming by at this hour. She opened the door to reveal her sister, who almost instantly attacked her in a hug, the younger woman’s blonde ponytail flying. 

"Oh Lois I am so sorry! I heard what happened in Canada and I felt so bad! You could have died and here I was being so horribly mean to you."

Lois staggered at the sudden weight on her, but wrapped her arms around the taller Lane girl’s waist. "It's okay Lucy. I'm fine." She frowned then and pulled back to give her a perplexed look. "How did you find out?"

"The military called Daddy and he called me to see if I had talked to you." She replied moving away from Lois and stepping into her living room. 

"Of course he did." She muttered under her breath but gave her sister a smile. "Thanks for checking on me Luce, but I am fine I promise."

"I felt so bad though Lo! I was so mean to you!"

She shrugged and pulled Lucy to the couch. "It’s okay, I understood. I felt bad as well. I really wanted to go dress shopping with you."

Lucy beamed down at her. "We could go this friday! Have a total girl’s weekend of it."

Lois glanced down at her stuff on the coffee table and hesitatingly shook her head. "I'm going to Canada this weekend."

"What! Again! Can’t Perry just give you a break? You almost died!"

"It’s not for a story." Lois clarified. She lifted Joe's picture and handed it to her. "This is the man that saved my life. He disappeared after I was found. I have to find him. I need to thank him." She omitted most of the truth, knowing that her sister would not have a pleasant reaction to the fact that she assumed the man was an alien.

Lucy's eyes widened as she studied the picture and she nodded. "Yes you do! When you find him bring him here! I need to thank him too!"

She nodded even though she knew the likely hood of that happening was incredibly slim. "I'll do what I can. I can’t look for him on company time though, so the next few weekends I'll be out looking." She gave her a wide smile. "How bout we go look at dresses next Wednesday after i get off work? We can go out to dinner after?"

Lucy smiled and nodded enthusiastically. "That sounds excellent to me!" She hugged her again before pulling back suddenly. "Oh, but that dinner with Peter's dads business associates! Its three weekends from now and we already told everyone that you would be there."

Lois nodded and reached out her hand to reassuringly squeeze Lucy's. "And I promise I will be."

The blonde squealed happily and hugged her again. "Good I am so glad!" She stood suddenly and then bent down to kiss her head. "I have to get going, but you concentrate on finding your hero okay?"

"I plan on it." She replied, waving with an amused smile as her sister basically pranced out of the room. As the door shut behind her, Lois glanced down at the computer and her smile changed to one of delight. Inspiration had suddenly struck her. 

'How do you find someone who has spent a lifetime covering his tracks? You start with the urban legends that have sprung up in his wake.'

Friday night found her exhaustingly collapsing onto a hotel bed. The last couple days had been long and tedious, but that morning she had been so excited to start in on her investigation of Joe. The flight immediately after work had taken it all out of her though.

She turned her head to stare at her bags, wondering if maybe she should attempt to add more to the two sentence introduction she had started on Wednesday evening but she couldn’t even bring herself to change into pajamas.

So instead she groaned pathetically, kicked her shoes off and crawled under the stiff covers. She'd begin work tomorrow.

The sun had only barely risen when she climbed into her rental car and made her way to the Arctic Cargo headquarters. It took her a little over an hour to reach it and by the time she got there it was a beehive of activity.

"Excuse me!" She called out to an employee as he passed her. "I'm looking for whoever is in charge?"

The man barely stopped moving as he pointed to dark haired man in blue. Lois called a thank you and hurried over to the one he had suggested.

"Excuse me!" She called out once again. He turned his head and she smiled at him. "Hi, I'm Lois Lane with the Daily Planet. I was wondering if you knew this man?" She pulled the picture of Joe out as she asked. 

He studied it for a moment before nodding with a smile. "Yeah that’s Joe! Good man, good worker."

"Would you by any chance know how to find him? He saved my life on Ellesmere and I wanted to thank him."

His expression turned grim and he shook his head. "I'm sorry Miss Lane. He disappeared up there." He gave her a hesitant look before adding. "We think he might have, uh, died rescuing you."

Her eyes went downcast, despite knowing that he was alive that was a terrible thing to contemplate. 

"Do you perhaps know where he was from so I could thank his family and give them my condolences?"

He shook his head sadly. "I'm not really sure if he had any family. He didn’t talk about himself much. He was always there for the other guys though, taking some of their loads or helping out anyway he could. We're going to miss him."

"Where did you hire him from?" she asked, despondent that so far she was gaining nothing. 

He laughed and a small grin crossed his lips. "That’s a funny story actually! A buddy of mine brought him up here. He said one of his trucker friends picked him up hitchhiking from southern Canada. Joe told Rick that he was looking for work up north. Rick thought he seemed like a stand up fellow and brought him to me."

"So he's from the southern part of the country?" 

He shook his head. "Well that’s where he was working before, but he was definitely American. You could hear it when he talked. I'm sorry I'm not much help Miss Lane. I really liked Joe. I wish I could do more for you!"

She smiled at him. "Don’t worry about it! I have more than I did when I woke up this morning." At the very least she had a new lead and the next sentence for her introduction. It was better than nothing.


	5. Chapter 5

'All of the friends of a friend who have claimed to have seen him."

It was almost a week since she had returned home from the Arctic Cargo headquarters and still the one sentence she had added that Saturday was the only new thing she had added to her document. She hadn’t gathered any more information on him either. Southern Canada was huge and not much of a lead. 

She had done everything she could think of to find more. What was she supposed to do? Look into every city and town for someone who fits his description? That was such a headache and worse than a needle in a haystack hunt. 

So she was where she had been every night after work that week. Sitting at her home desk and getting beyond frustrated at the lack of insight. She had tried calling the guy Rick that the Arctic Cargo manager had mentioned, but had come up empty. 

Currently she was staring at the blinking cursor on her document reading the three pathetic sentences there. It wasn’t doing much to help her though. That is until her eyes caught and held onto one section of words. Urban legends.

She laughed breathlessly and shook her head at herself. Of course! She was looking for someone extraordinary pretending to be a simple man. She didn’t need to look for the ordinary in life. The amazing would stand out.

She pulled open her web browser and started a search for recent Canadian legends. Most of it was nonsense, things about strange animal sightings, Bigfoot speculations and other such nonsense. One grabbed her attention though. A man's truck had been completely demolished; two of the logs he was hauling were sticking out of the front end while the rest had been jammed vertically into the ground. 

The driver claimed he was certain that a busboy had done it, but he had been drinking and there was no way anyone believed him. Lucky for him, she did.

She diligently looked for his contact information and cheered when she finally found it. If she was right, he would be her next big lead.

It only took a couple rings for him to answer, a gruff voice ringing in her ear. 

"Hello?"

"Hi Mister Jenkins, I'm Lois Lane, a reporter with the Daily Planet. I would like to speak with you about the incident with your truck a month ago?"

"Finally!" He exclaimed angrily. "No one would listen to a thing I said about it."

"What exactly is it that you think happened?" she questioned with an annoyed frown at his tone. 

"I was at a truck stop bar enjoying a few drinks. I'd been there before and had a bit of a thing for the waitress Chrissy. That night I was flirting with her like normal and this new busboy got all bitchy about it. Telling me to leave her alone or he'll make me leave. Must of had a thing for her or somethin." He scoffed then and Lois got angrily agitated at the way he talked about her rescuer. "So I poured my beer on his head and he got all pissed. Obviously I was going to fight him but when I went to push the freak he stayed perfectly still and I almost fell on my ass! There was obviously something wrong with him."

She grit her teeth to resist from yelling at this ignorant asshole but instead was able to force out, "So what made you think he did that to your truck?"

"Well he left all pissed off like, and a couple hours later when I went outside the truck was destroyed! He obviously had some sort of insane strength. I just know he did it."

She nodded her head in understanding. "Thank you for your time."

"Yeah. You better find this jackass. He owes me a truck."

He hung up then and if he hadn’t just given her the lead she needed Lois would hunt him down and punch his face in. What an absolute jerk!

"I bet Joe was defending that waitress." She muttered to herself as she booked a flight for the next day. "Arrogant ass."

It was a little chilly for mid-June when Lois stepped out of yet another rental car and made her way into the bar. She headed straight to the man behind the counter and smiled. "Hello. I’m Lois Lane with the Daily Planet. I was wondering if this man used to work for you?" 

She slid the picture of Joe across the counter to him. He reached out a hand to grab it and then nodded once. "Yeah. That’s Jacob Carsons. He was here for about a couple months. I didn’t know him too well. Chrissy did though." 

He pointed to an attractive brunette that was coming up to the bar. “You wanna talk about Jake you go to her."

Jake huh? Lois was happy to have another name for him, but she doubted that it was his real one. Never-the-less she was now one step closer to finding out who he really was and she was sure Chrissy could help her even more.

"Hi Chrissy, my name is Lois. I was wondering if i could maybe talk to you about Jacob Carsons for a minute?"

She turned to her with slightly narrowed eyes. "How come?"

"He saved my life a couple weeks ago and I'm trying to find him." She replied kindly. The waitress's face lit up and she nodded. 

"Okay, I'll go on a smoke break and we can talk."

Lois followed the brunette woman out of the bar and down to the side steps. She let her light up her cigarette before asking, "You knew Jacob well?"

Chrissy smiled and gave a small shrug. "Better than anyone else here. He was such a sweetheart to me. Always taking his breaks with mine and listening to anything I had to say. He was a sweetie to you too?"

"Yeah." Lois returned her smile. "He worked here for a couple months?"

"Mhmm."

"He looked out for you?" 

"Yeah." She grinned even wider at that. "He watched out for me, made sure none of the creeps that came by would harass me or anything. He scared quite a few people off, just by looking at them. He never had to get violent."

"Do you think he was the one that destroyed that trucker’s semi?" Lois asked curiously.

Chrissy looked over her shoulder like she was checking for eavesdroppers before turning back and nodding her head. "Jake is different than most people. He'd do little things that made that pretty obvious. That jerk was grabbing my ass and trying to make me sit in his lap. Jake was nice about asking him to stop and he got humiliated for it! If he did destroy that guy’s truck, which I am sure he had the ability to, the asshole definitely deserved it."

She nodded her head in agreement. "I think you're absolutely right. You said he would listen to you, did he ever say anything himself? About his family or where he was from?"

The other woman shrugged sadly. "No he didn’t say too much. He talked about his mom every once in a while." She grinned before continuing. "It was easy to tell how completely important she is to him."

Lois grinned widely at that. A mama’s boy. Not a surprise. 

"Did he say where he moved here from?"

She shook her head. "No not specifically. He mentioned once he was glad to be away from the ocean again. And that it is much colder here then his home. That’s about all really."

"He's a private person." She stated knowingly. 

"Oh absolutely." Chrissy nodded vehemently. "When you find him, will you thank him for me too? I never got to."

"I will for sure." She staggered back when the brunette suddenly hugged her. 

"Thank you Lois. You find our guardian angel okay?"

That night as she sat in her hotel room she happily typed a new addition to the introduction. 

'For some, he was a guardian angel.'

She hadn’t even realized how true that statement was until Chrissy had voiced it. Joe, or well Jake, was absolutely a guardian angel. She knew he was to her. 

 


End file.
